88 PRODUCTS OF THE 



could make such formidable wounds, and therefore 

 presume that these monsters dwell far from the 

 coasts ; whilst they at the same time allow that they 

 have not otherwise been able to detect any trace 

 of them/' Nearer home, they have similar ene- 

 mies, and we are happy here to add a valuable 

 note from Dr Trail's manuscript : ' In 1833, I in- 

 quired for my old acquaintances the Seals of the 

 Holm of Papa Westray, and was informed that, 

 about four years before, they had totally deserted the 

 island, and had only within the last few months be- 

 gun to reappear. The seeming cause of this migra- 

 tion was the attacks of some powerful ravenous inha- 

 bitant of the ocean. My friend informed me that in 

 1 828 or 1 829, he had found the bodies of more than a 

 dozen of Seals completely divided through the mid- 

 dle, as if by a bite, drifted on shore. It was almost 

 in every instance the portion next the tail that was 

 found, and the appearance of these fragments showed 

 that the body of the animal had been cleanly cut 

 through, as if by the single stroke of the monstrous 

 jaws of some species of shark." It has, moreover, 

 been observed that these creatures are subject to 

 very fatal epidemics. " About fifty years ago, 

 multitudes of their carcases were cast ashore in 

 every bay in the north of Scotland, Orkney, and 

 Shetland, and numbers were found at sea in a sickly 

 state."* 



Without in the slightest degree depreciating the 



Fleming, Brit. An. p. J7. 



